Going A Viking (Internet Style)

More changes, all the time! So much to catch up on!

But first a little rant:

It’s been a busy time running to doctors and labs and there and back again. When my ancestors said they were “going a Viking” this was NOT what they had in mind.

The doctors put me on several prescription medications at once, something for high cholesterol, something for my heart, something for hypertension plus an herb/vitamin/amino acid mix (horse pills) for feeling run down all the time. I think I finally have all that sorted out, primarily by dropping two of the prescription drugs, the side effects of which make it impossible to function like a human being. I hope to become more productive again.

I do not like having to swallow all those pills. I do not like having to remember to take all those pills.

I really do not like prescription medications. At all. Under any circumstances.

I understand why, at times, people need to take them, but I always get the most rare side effects possible, and they’re always the least pleasant. And let me tell you, being given three prescriptions at once that all have a side effect of “dizziness” is NOT in my big book of good things. I got up one morning, sat down in front of the computer and just stared at it, unable to order a single thought.

You have to wonder sometimes what doctors are thinking. Sure, some side effects go away in a couple of weeks but how are you supposed to function during those two weeks?

::insert subvocalized growling and grunting and defiant waving of a bearded axe::

Rant over.

I’ve joined the “350 Challenge” which offsets 350 pounds of carbon when I put their badge on my blog.

I urge other bloggers to do the same. It’s a painless way to help and its something any person with a blog can do. These days, that’s a lot of people.

I’m also putting in a link to CenterLeft.info, “a collaborative effort of several bloggers who have joined together to provide differing views and styles while maintaining our common goal of promoting equality and acceptance for all!” I’ll be occasionally writing articles for them and my first has already appeared, a revised and updated post which originally appeared here last year.

I’ve done some more work on Mos Maiorum. I re-did the Articles page, using an unordered list, substituting a little CSS for a lot of HTML, which reduces the overall weight of the site and streamlines it. The CSS is something I can use on other pages as well, and I have, on the main page. It has a nice blue rollover effect too. Amazing what a couple of words will do.

I also lightened the overall effect of the site by ratcheting up the brightness of the text. It looked a little dim to me on Firefox compared to Safari and IE.

These are mostly cosmetic changes but I haven’t had the mental acuity to tackle the footnotes yet. I hope to get to that soon but it will be time consuming, one article at a time. Fortunately for me, any articles coming over from Ancestral Traditions will be properly footnoted already.

I might make a few more cosmetic changes like this as I spot things I can streamline or improve. But I really have to fight the urge to tinker for tinkering’s sake. It’s really fun playing around but I want to make the most of what time I have so I have to try to fight my tendency towards tunnel vision.

Finally, we got a few inches of snow here over the past couple of days. There is a blizzard watch in effect, apparently (at least as of last night – I haven’t checked this morning) but it’s snowing lightly out there now. The city has to come put sand on the street so the nurse can get out to treat my son and they said we’re expecting a blizzard today. I’ll believe it when I see it, though the temperature has dropped from 32 to 30 in the past half hour, so maybe something is afoot (and it wasn’t snowing at all a half hour ago). It’s all enough to make a good Viking grunt. Before this is over I might feel like I’m back in Minnesota again. And that DOES go into my big book of good things.

I have all kinds of “heathenish” (heatheny?) thoughts in my head that I want to get out but this is going to have to suffice for today. I haven’t been out touring other blogs since New Years and I want to take some time to do that now that I’m conscious (mostly) again.